


Fool for Fish

by JazzRaft



Category: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Birthday Fluff, Crossover, F/M, Fluff, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26236915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: When Lightning said she was "going to catch him something" Noctis expected she meant it. He just didn't realize how much she meant it.
Relationships: Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 7
Kudos: 39





	Fool for Fish

**Author's Note:**

> This can be considered a companion piece to [Fishing Frustrations](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20464721). Prompted over on my [tumblr](https://jazzraft.tumblr.com/)!

The dead body dropped upon Noct’s little fold-out table with a heavy, wet slap. The table buckled under the weight, bowing to the cold blue triumph in Lightning’s glare. Noctis could only blink, shocked and awed, cowering behind his phone as if that tiny amount of surface area could shield him from the wide-eyed corpse presented to him.

“Happy birthday,” Lightning stated with finality, then marched away.

“Thanks,” Noct squeaked.

He stared in equal parts horror and fascination at the great, dead fish. It had to be at least six feet long, and by the sound of its massive _thunk_ against the table, it had to be heavier than he was. The thin plastic spokes of the fold-out were starting to wheeze under the weight. Wondering how Lightning had managed to drag the creature from the lake on her own made Noct feel light-headed. He doubted even Gladio could have managed the thing without help.

“Hey.”

Noctis nearly jumped out of his skin when Lightning returned. She scraped a skeptical look over him, but didn’t comment on the blanched palette of his face. She merely tapped the fishing rod against her shoulder, bouncing the lure in her palm.

“This one’s good,” she said of the lure, matter-of-factly. “You should get more.”

“No shit.”

He laughed, breathlessly, thumbs shaking as he tapped his phone to take a picture of her catch. Lightning quirked one sharp brow at him, shrugged, and returned to the tackle box, holding onto the little green malboro lure as her trophy. The fish was for Noct.

“There’s no way…” he muttered to himself.

He didn’t need to search it to know what the thing was. He’d marveled at this very fish upon the centerfolds of his angling magazines many times, starry-eyed over the tenacity of the fisherman to have caught such a beast. Arapaima were vicious once they got on the line, thrashing and pulling with endless reserves of stamina. This breed was known to drag even the best anglers right off the end of the dock, reeling in human beings just as adeptly as they did fish. Some fishermen claimed to have fought the arapaima from sunrise to sunset before its strength finally puttered out. One guy claimed it ate his hand, but Noct was pretty sure he’d just sat in the sun a little too long waiting for the thing to bite.

Catching the fish was a feat, but the longer Noctis admired the pale scales, the less surprised he was that Lightning had managed it. He didn’t know a whole lot of people so determined to bend nature to their will who also had the power to _actually_ do it. When Lightning said she was going off to kill that behemoth in the way of their path, she did not come back without wearing its teeth. It could take hours, it could take days, it could take him having a panic attack wondering if she was dead, but when Lightning said she was going to do something she did not come back until it was done.

This morning, when she’d said, “I’m going to catch you something,” Noct had merely nodded and yawned and looked forward to getting a minnow. He would have been perfectly happy with that. He just appreciated that she would go out of her way to even attempt it for him. He knew that she wouldn’t have been pleased with anything short of a twenty pound bass, but he didn’t think she’d resolved to go _this_ far.

Noctis took pictures of every angle of the fish before the table cracked under its weight. He shuffled back when it did, freezing like he expected the arapaima to leap up and attack him from the stone floor of the haven after murdering the table. But the thing just stared, appalled by its own defeat, into the russet sunset over the Vesperpool.

The quivering feeling of horror in Noct’s guts slowly started to lighten into a bubbly bounce of giddy joy. He felt his lips jerking up at the corners, nearly hysterical in his glee. He didn’t know what the hell he was going to do with this thing, and the pride he felt wasn’t the same as when he caught a challenging fish himself. No, this was more than that. He didn’t think he could feel prouder than when he reeled in a fifty pounder, but being the chosen recipient of Lightning’s accomplishment… well, that wasn’t something just anyone could earn.

Tentatively, Noctis approached her while she was tidying up the fishing equipment, inspecting the line in the glint of the sun as fastidiously as if she were tempering a blade. Noctis fiddled with his hands for a second, not sure if he should ask first before he hugged her. Ultimately, he bit his lip and just resolved to do it, worse with words than he was with gestures. She stiffened immediately at the surprise squeeze of his arms around her.

“Off.” The brusque command was immediate.

“Thanks,” he said, voice embarrassingly high before he cleared his throat and tried again. “I love it.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re weird like that.”

He felt her shoulders loosen just the tiniest bit, a small huff of a sigh exhaled in fond exasperation. She allowed him to maintain this invasion of her personal space for a whole five seconds longer then, demanded again, “Off.”

He scampered away like an excited puppy to inspect the fish upon the remains of the table, not sure what he was more excited about: the fact that he got to brag about this for years to come, or the fact Lightning let him hug her _and_ let him keep all of his appendages. In his excitement – and his befuddled efforts to figure out where the hell he was going to store this monster – he didn’t catch the sharp cut of Lightning’s stare go soft with a smile as she watched him.

She hated fishing, hated having to practice in secret under the cover of the night, hated being defeated countless times over by the elusive fish of Lucis’s lakes, but for that? That big, boyish smile and those wide, sparkling eyes?

Worth it.


End file.
